


Be Careful What You Wish For

by orphan_account



Category: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-22
Updated: 2013-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-05 15:07:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1095448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>...because you may find it comes true.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Be Careful What You Wish For

**Author's Note:**

  * For [zeldadestry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeldadestry/gifts).



> Written for zeldadestry for Yuletide 2013. I hope you like it, I'm aware this a little bit of a diversion from your request for a human!Cameron but there's nothing to say you didn't want this.

(i)

_2009, Los Angeles, California_

“He’ll never love you, you know.” 

It wasn’t a question and so Cameron didn’t move. She could hear Derek’s footsteps as he joined her outside, and leaned against the tree in front of her before continuing. “Not like he loves her.” 

Derek nodded towards the second floor window. “She understands him.”

“I understand him.” 

Derek laughed. “You’re metal. You can study us all you like, but you’ll never understand. You’re not human.”

Cameron didn’t acknowledge the statement and continued observing John’s bedroom window until long after Derek slipped away. Riley was a problem. She was a potential threat to John and it was Cameron’s job to protect him. Her John had trusted her with this mission, and Cameron would complete it. Whether she was human or not. 

(ii)

_September 1999, Red Valley, New Mexico_

The new guy was kinda cute. If you liked that whole Atlas ‘weight of the world’ thing that he had going on. Plus, he was from out of state which made him much more interesting than the small town losers that normally hit on Cameron. She’d caught him checking her out yesterday so figured she had a shot.

Opening her locker, Cameron inspected her reflection in the mirror. She longed for the big city, anything to get away from the boredom of Red Valley. Sixteen months and she’d be out of here but for now she needed to make her own fun and new guy looked like that fun. 

When she made it to class, Cameron slid into the desk next to the new guy. He glanced up at her and she smiled. Definitely cute. “What’s your name?”

“John.”

“Cameron. I haven’t seen you around here before.” Not her greatest line, but she could work on it.

“We just moved here.” John didn’t look impressed.

Cameron laughed. “Sucks for you.” 

“Yeah. What do people here do for fun?”

“Planning our escape?” That one got half a smile. “Maybe I could show you sometime?”

John hesitated for a moment but then nodded. “Yeah, that’d be great.”

Cameron was too busy being pleased with herself to notice that the teacher had already arrived and started taking attendance. The substitute, Cameron guessed Mr Ferguson was ill today, glared as she answered her name before moving onto John.

Then all hell broke loose. Someone screamed as the teacher pulled out a gun and started firing. Acting on instinct, Cameron dove to the floor and covered her head with her hands. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears and felt like she was going to be sick. In that moment she was convinced they were all going to die.

There were no more gunshots but Cameron was terrified to move in case the teacher started firing again. She stayed curled up under her desk, hoping that the wood was somehow protect her, until she heard the other students shout that he had left. 

Slowly, Cameron lowered her hands and peered out into the classroom. There was chaos as students ran for the door now that the gunman had gone. 

All Cameron could see was John Reese staring blankly at the ceiling as blood seeped from his chest wounds. The image would haunt her dreams as she spent months replaying the day in her mind, wondering if there was any way that John could have protected himself from the shooting.

(iii)

_2021, Serrano Point Resistance Bunker_

One of the leaders of the resistance had ‘cracked’. It was not that unusual; several loyal soldiers had been unable to cope with the pressure of the fight against Skynet. This was the first that had made it to the main meeting room brandishing a weapon. 

Angry at the report of the last resistance attack Major General Perry began to pace the room. “Twenty men went out on a mission today. Only eight came back. In the past month I have sent more than a hundred men to their deaths on your orders.”

John cocked his head. “The men understand the risks.”

“The risks, yes, but you’ve become reckless. Half of these missions are suicide.” Perry was clearly struggling to cope with the stress and had become a danger to them all. Cameron stepped forward to deal with the situation but John raised a hand to stop her.

“There have been some unfortunate casualties, but we are gaining ground. We have to keep pushing forward.”

Perry laughed, high and tight for a human, a common indicator of insanity. “If we carry on this way then you’ll have no men left in a year. Every mission you plan is more dangerous than the last.”

“This war cannot be won without sacrifice. You know that.” 

“We can’t win if we’re all dead!” Perry shouted in anger. Without warning, he pulled his gun and shot John twice in the chest. 

The bullets bounced off John’s chest and clattered to the floor. Perry didn’t have time to react before John returned fire and watched as Perry’s body clattered to the floor. 

“The humans will not win.” John announced as he turned his weapon on the other leaders of the resistance.

(iv)

_2009, Los Angeles, California_

Sarah wasn’t surprised when she heard. Maybe it was because something had been off from the start, or because they brought danger down on everyone they cared about, but somehow she’d known that Riley was dead. 

She’d prepared herself for John’s breakdown after he confronted Jesse. She’d almost hoped for it. John had changed so much after Sarkissian. What he’d had to do that day had changed him more than the machines ever had. Whatever Sarah’s own feelings about Riley, she’d been able to help John when Sarah couldn’t. Riley had given John a taste of a normal teenage life when all he’d known was training and running. Sarah was grateful for that at least.

She pulled John closer to her and grieved for his loss. For Riley, and the last threads of John’s innocence. Of everything they’d been through, the hardest part was seeing John in pain. If there was any way that Sarah could take that from him, she’d do it in a heartbeat.

(v)

_August 1997, Los Angeles, California_

Sarah smiled as she spotted a familiar face in one of the corner booths. Tony was one of her regulars and a great tipper. She waited until he looked up from his newspaper before speaking. “Morning, Tony. What can I get for you today?”

“The usual, please Sarah. Have you seen this?” Tony pointed to one of the smaller headlines. “Rumor has it that Cyberdyne have failed to deliver on a Government contract.”

“Oh really?” Sarah didn’t have a lot of interest in computers but Tony was a nice guy and it didn’t hurt to humor him. “What kind of contract?”

“Some kind of AI defence system according to this article. Seems like the whole project was a bust. Shame really, can you imagine what it would have been like if they’d succeeded?”

“AI? As in robots?” Sarah thought about it for a moment. “Might start taking all our jobs if we’re not careful.”

“You think?”

“What else would they do? If that had worked, maybe you’d have a Cyberdyne robot serving your breakfast.” Computers could do anything these days, maybe it wasn’t far from the truth.

Tony thought about it for a second and then grinned. “They wouldn’t be as pretty as you though.” 

Sarah laughed. “I knew you were my favorite customer. I’ll be right back with your breakfast.” 

She chuckled to herself as she headed to the kitchen to put Tony’s order in. You met the oddest people in this line of work. Probably why she’d never thought about doing anything else.


End file.
